Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[wombat]

Today I'm gonna learn that people actually click on animated banner ads on the Internet. My publisher is running an ad and linking it to my blog (yes, this doesn't make sense, sigh) and damn if people aren't actually clicking on it.

[KeithHernandez]

... want a gun more than I have ever wanted one.  I don't know if this was big news other places?  Or just places with MMJ?  Anyways, having a prescription for marijuana does not allow you to carry a gun and marijuana at the same time, which seems like some bullshit to me.  Can old dudes on Oxycontin carry guns?  Then I should be allowed too.

[littlefallsmets]

...realize that I am on my fourth submission to McSweeney's Internet Tendency, all rejected and I'm gonna keep trying, and I have no idea what this says about me.

[pmcd9]

Be the Ball Mike.

[Doc]

...realize that I am on my fourth submission to McSweeney's Internet Tendency, all rejected and I'm gonna keep trying, and I have no idea what this says about me.

That you're doing what you love.... getting rejected.

No... wait, the other thing.

[littlefallsmets]

I am trying to be the ball.

I am trying to do the dumb things I gotta do.

I am trying to touch the puppet head.

[pmcd9]

Keep on pushing man.  In all sincerity, I believe you have it in you to succeed at doing what you love to do.

[wombat]

...realize that I am on my fourth submission to McSweeney's Internet Tendency, all rejected and I'm gonna keep trying, and I have no idea what this says about me.

You've submitted all of those things elsewhere once they were rejected, right?  There is only something wrong with what you are doing if McSweeney's is the only place you are getting rejected from.

[jay-ell]

Also, humor is one of those things where something could be perfectly hilarious, but if it's not quite the right style or tone for the publication, they'll reject it for that reason. I think comic pieces are harder to place than narrative or nonfiction ones. That's why I don't write humor.

Well, that, plus not being funny.

[littlefallsmets]

I don't know what other places to submit that kind of stuff to?

An opendiary friend suggested to me that some of my entries, slightly rewritten, might fit that site's thing so I've been trying that.

Sort of to ramp myself up into being able to do it multiple places.

Babysteps, I think.

[theinevitable]

holy crap, the feeling I had leaving that interview was great. I feel very optimistic.

The more she talked about what I would be doing, the bigger the smile got on my face. YEAH.

[wombat]

I don't know what other places to submit that kind of stuff to?

Part of your job as a writer is to figure out where the markets are for your stuff. Are you spending time actually looking for humor websites that maybe you haven't already heard of? Are you looking at sites that do take submissions and trying to come up with something that would suit them (Cracked.com, say)? I mean, it's not like this is hard work - I am suggesting you surf the web. Hell, send those McSweeney's pieces to The New Yorker, isn't that the same sort of dry allegedly witty style?

Your job is to be accumulating a file full of rejection letters. If you're not doing this you need to figure out how. It doesn't happen by itself.

[jay-ell]

Smets, listen to Wombles. She knows what she's talking about. I have followed her advice and I have been published twice, once was even in print. And it looks like I'm going to be published in China within the next year. I do not think I am a better writer than you. I think I just did what Wombat said and threw stuff at as many places as I could think of and some of it stuck.

I have been slacking lately, because of kid and family obligations, but if you do the work and collect those rejection letters religiously -- and let me tell you, getting back a rejection letter is much more satisfying than getting back nothing at all, which is what usually happens -- eventually someone will send you an acceptance letter and spoil your collection.

[wombat]

And if you keep trying, someday you will have a whole book published by a major New York publisher and get to discover that they really have no idea how to run a business and you have probably done all this work and it will go nowhere! So there's that to look forward to.

[wombat]

Oh and one more thing: The first few rejections hurt. The fiftieth is, like, whatever. At this point all I feel is annoyance that I have to dig out the file where I keep track and make a note of it.

I don't doubt that I started out with more self-confidence than LFM, but it doesn't matter in the long run, if you just keep exposing yourself to it, you will get desensitized.